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CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research project

Objective

The success of stem cell therapy is highly dependent on a safe and reliable supply of human stem cells and stem cell-derived differentiated cells, which must be assured by efficient and robust culture methods. Current culture of human embryonic and adult stem cells is not optimised (with regards to e.g. media, growth factors, supporting biomaterials, differentiation techniques) and is far from fulfilling the demands in terms of reproducibility and preciseness. Additionally, current methods do not allow fast screening of culture conditions for their systematic optimisation. These limitations currently slow down the development of stem cell applications and will be addressed and overcome by the Hyperlab project. To reach the overall aim of developing new and improved culture methods, media and protocols for stem cell cultivation and differentiation, Hyperlab will adapt novel microfluidics-based cell cultivation technologies to the specific needs of stem cell culture. The developed culture systems will have two major advantages over existing approaches: on the one hand, they will improve stem cell culture in terms of microenvironment control, reproducibility, robustness and efficiency. On the other hand, these microscale technologies, together with developed transgenic readout systems, will allow medium to high throughput screening of culture conditions, enabling determination of optimal protocols in shorter time. Once established, technologies, protocols and conditions will be evaluated for their upscalability and will be made GMP-compliant to form a solid basis for progress in human stem cell therapy. To implement this innovative strategy, Hyperlab follows an integrated approach, bringing together renowned experts from stem cell biology, microsystem technologies, biomaterial design and relevant regulatory bodies. Hyperlab is thus in a position to provide standardised, reproducible methods and tools to advance therapeutic stem cell research.